Rangel: Yo No Hablo Español, OK?”

Rep. Charles Rangel, the powerful head of the congressional committee that writes the country’s tax laws, blamed his ignorance – and not being able to understand Spanish – for failing to report $75,000 in rental income from his Caribbean holiday home.

“We do make errors, even though we consider ourselves experts,” Rangel, a 19-term Democratic representative from Harlem, said yesterday at a Capitol Hill press conference to discuss his dream getaway at the Punta Cana Yacht Club in the Dominican Republic.

“I sincerely regret and take personal responsibility for these errors,” said Rangel, who now has three matters before the House Ethics Committee.

Read more: (Daphne Retter and Chuck Bennett, “Yo No Hablo Español, OK?,” New York Post, 9/11/08)